Welcome! See Italy (and more) through the eyes of an artist: American sculptor and painter Kelly Borsheim creates her life and art in Italy and shares her adventures in travel and art with you. Come on along, please and Visit her fine art work online at: www.BorsheimArts.com

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Monday, March 14, 2016

Burning, Trimming, and Mural Painting

Dear Art Lover,

Lately,
my neighbors have been making little fires all around these hills in Tuscany.They are removing much of the grasses that
have overgrown over the winter.Today,
my landlord and his brother will start trimming their olive trees.I really hate to miss this!

Tomorrow I leave for Firenze and will live
there for one month as I work with a private student. We will have fun on his new still life
painting project (after his first project EVER was Leonardo da Vinci’s “Leda
and the Swan” – a human figure, and animal, and a landscape!). But, I love my new home and I want so much to
see each season here as they unfold. My
landlord assured me that spring will not pass me by before I return, but … I
love helping “my family” in Casignano each November with the olive harvest. To be around for the trimming sounds
interesting to me. Here, it is dangerous
work because the olive trees grow on the sides of the hills and they use
ladders and saws. It would be nice if I
could be here even for added safety for them.
Oy yoy.

My mural project
progresses slowly. This is partially
because there is so much detail work in creating a specific landscape, and I,
sadly, get confused easily on which of my charcoal markings denotes the dark
shape or the light one. The other part,
naturally, is that I have a fair amount to do before leaving tomorrow.

I took these close-up
images last night. It is weird to see
them in this way. I think the mural
looks better in person. However, I have
not finished with these parts that I show you.
I just wanted to share how I am layering the acrylic paint and trying to
get soft edges to create something of an atmosphere. Sadly, not much more will
happen on this for at least a month, in
case you were thinking to hold your breath.
Hahaha…

Thank you. And
happy birthday to two very lovely ladies:
Giuliana and Dilya!

Thanks, Sirkka! Yes, I think this is a much larger project than I envisioned. It will be kinda cool once done, but ... do I have the patienze? So many unfinished paintings in my life at the moment and I really want to get back to sculpting stone! ah, life..

I keep thumbs up for your mural!I thought I was the only one with loads of unfinished paintings. Your painting life sounds like mine: You wish to be back to sculpting, I long for plein air but I have a charcoal project going on. sirkka

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About Me

"I am interested in the more personal moments of our lives – things we do not often share with other people, or at least, not knowingly so. I am also fascinated by the duality of our nature, especially the idea that two opposing concepts exist in a strange kind of balance. Our thoughts are expressed through our bodies. I use the elements of visual language to appeal to the senses of sight and touch while exploring these ideas, seeking the universal in the personal. I want art to be a sensual experience." - Kelly Borsheim

Since her first painting sale in October 1997 (an oil painting titled Hand Off Knee),
Kelly Borsheim's paintings, drawings, and bronze and stone sculpture are now in private
collections throughout the United States and Europe, and in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.

Kelly also worked as a street painter (pastels and chalks) in Florence, Italy for about four years. Her image-filled book "My Life as a Street Painter in Florence, Italy" is available on Amazon.com in many countries around the world, as well as directly from her studios.